Thursday, Jan 30, 2020 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering the 16-hour Q. and A. session at President Trump’s impeachment trial, Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, and Americans’ increasing life expectancy.

By Chris Stanford

Republicans push for a speedy end to trial

Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, and other Republicans sound increasingly confident that they have the votes needed to block witnesses and bring President Trump’s impeachment trial to an end as soon as Friday.

They’ve offered multiple rationales for refusing fresh testimony, but our chief Washington correspondent says that Republicans are worried that hearing from John Bolton, the former national security adviser, would lead to a cascade of other witnesses. That would tie up the Senate indefinitely when Mr. Trump’s acquittal is not in doubt.

On Wednesday, the Senate began a two-day question-and-answer session with the House impeachment managers and the president’s legal team. Here are six takeaways.

Closer look: One of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Alan Dershowitz, offered a strikingly broad defense, arguing that a president cannot be removed from office for actions to improve re-election prospects if he believes his re-election is in the national interest.

“Every public official I know believes that his election is in the public interest,” Mr. Dershowitz said. “Mostly, you’re right.” Our congressional editor discussed his comments on The Latest, our podcast about the impeachment investigation.

What’s next: The trial will resume at 1 p.m. Eastern today. A vote on whether to hear from new witnesses is expected on Friday.

Another angle: The White House has said it reviewed a draft of Mr. Bolton’s coming book, but Mr. Trump’s lawyers insisted on Wednesday that they were unaware that it contradicted the president’s impeachment defense.

Lining up to buy face masks in the southern Chinese city of Nanning on Wednesday. Chinatopix, via Associated Press

Rushing to halt the spread of the coronavirus

A World Health Organization committee is set to meet for the second time in a week to decide whether the outbreak is a global health emergency. Today’s meeting comes as the number of confirmed cases surpassed 7,700 worldwide, most of them in China. Here are the latest updates.

More than a dozen countries, including the U.S., are isolating patients and screening travelers from China. Nobody has died from the disease outside mainland China, where the death toll rose today to 170.

Closer look: The outbreak is a reminder of how dependent the world’s economy is on China, our business correspondent in Hong Kong writes. Global brands including Ford, Ikea and Starbucks are shutting down factories and stores, while Apple is rerouting supply chains.

Related: Public health experts in the U.S. fear that the hoarding of surgical masks could raise the risk of a domestic outbreak. Our guide to the virus includes safety tips.

The Daily: Today’s episode is about the virus.

British members of the European Parliament before a vote about Brexit on Wednesday in Brussels. Francisco Seco/Associated Press

Brexit is finally happening

Britain is scheduled to formally withdraw from the European Union on Friday, after more than three years of confusion, political division and missed deadlines.

But a potentially volatile new chapter — in which London and Brussels try to hash out a trade deal by the end of the year — is just beginning.

Go deeper: While Brexit has produced some unity among the 27 other European Union members, it stands to weaken the bloc’s diplomatic clout and highlight internal divisions, our senior diplomatic correspondent in Europe writes.

Quotable: “It’s a defeat for everyone — for the European project, for Britain’s position in the world and for American interests, since the U.S. was the beneficiary of Britain in the E.U.,” said Ian Lesser, a former American diplomat.

Which Democrat agrees with you most?

As primary season begins, you might be unsure which presidential candidate best matches your views and priorities.

To help, we’ve produced a 10-question quiz to determine the Democratic hopeful with whom you most align.

Closer look: Joe Biden has highlighted his work during the Obama administration to help widen access to health care and revive the economy. But to many labor union officials, those years were a disappointment.

Another angle: Iowa State University has prohibited political slogans written in chalk on sidewalks after students complained that the messages had become discriminatory and divisive. A group has sued the school, saying the ban violates the First Amendment.

If you have some time, this is worth it

Loyal to China, but locked up anyway

Asa Sjostrom for The New York Times

From Beijing’s perspective, Zulhumar Isaac, above, a Uighur woman from the region of Xinjiang, grew up in a model ethnic-minority family: Her mother was a Communist Party cadre, and her father worked at a newspaper that toed the official line.

But when President Xi Jinping’s government began cracking down on Uighurs, her parents were detained. Our writer spent nearly a year documenting her effort to get them back.

Here’s what else is happening

Living longer: Life expectancy for Americans has increased for the first time in four years, the government reported today. After a decline driven by a surge in drug overdoses, the benchmark rose to 78.7 years in 2018.

New York’s crumbling facades: Scaffolding surrounds about 1,400 buildings in the city because of safety concerns. An investigation by The Times found that landlords flout laws on building exteriors and ignore enforcement, including $31 million in fines.

Get crackin’: A sculpture outside C.I.A. headquarters contains an encrypted message that hasn’t been fully decoded for almost 30 years. Its creator has offered a new clue.

NSO/NSF/AURA

Snapshot: Above, the surface of the sun, pictured by a telescope in Hawaii. The high-resolution image released on Wednesday revealed cell-like “kernels,” each about the size of Texas, that carry heat from inside the sun to the outside.

Late-night comedy: At the impeachment trial, senators have to submit questions written on a card. “It looks like the card you fill out before singing karaoke,” Jimmy Fallon said.

What we’re reading: This account of an attempt to do the Silicon Valley dopamine fast in The Cut. Melina Delkic of the Briefings team calls it “hilarious and weird,” adding, “I’m not sure what I just read, but I liked it.”

Now, a break from the news

Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich.

Cook: There’s only one rule for cheesy cornbread muffins: Don’t overmix.

Watch: We spoke to the actor George MacKay about how he pulled off the thrilling final run in the film “1917.”

Read: “A Very Stable Genius,” by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, is a No. 1 debut on our hardcover nonfiction and combined print and e-book nonfiction best-seller lists.

Smarter Living: Not everyone develops social skills as a child. Here’s a primer for adults.

And now for the Back Story on …

Gandhi’s mantle

Today is the 72nd anniversary of the death of Mohandas Gandhi, who helped win India’s independence from Britain with a campaign of nonviolence and who enshrined protections for all religions. Protesters challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist agenda have been evoking Gandhi’s legacy — as has Mr. Modi. Maria Abi-Habib, a South Asia correspondent for The Times, spoke with Mike Ives of the Briefings team about the clash.

How have the protests changed since they started a few months ago?

They’re a lot broader. It’s not just Muslims or a bunch of liberal students, it’s people who see the India that Gandhi built, one of secularism and religious coexistence, giving way to a government that is bent on a sectarian narrative at a time when the economy is sputtering.

A protest in New Delhi on Wednesday against a new citizenship law. Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters

Do any scenes spring to mind?

Some protesters held a placard that read: “Dear Hindus, We rejected an Islamic state in 1947. Now it’s your turn to reject a Hindu state. Sincerely, Secular India.” That really spoke to me because 1947 was the partition, when Hindus in Pakistan decided to stay or flee to India, and Muslims in India had a similar choice.

India chose secularism in 1947. It was majority Hindu and said its strength was its diversity, and that it would embrace Christians and Muslims and Sikhs just as much as its Hindu citizens.

Why is one protest in particular — a highway sit-in by Muslim women in New Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh neighborhood — seen as so significant?

Over all, India’s Muslim community has not been well organized in recent decades, but these protests have mobilized it. Shaheen Bagh has become a symbol of that. And women’s place in Indian Muslim homes has tended to be a conservative stereotype: They don’t come onto the streets, they don’t protest, they don’t mobilize. So Shaheen Bagh has really changed the game.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you
Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford and Chris Harcum provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about the coronavirus outbreak.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Highly capable (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times has named Ben Smith, the editor in chief of BuzzFeed, as its next media columnist.